¡Oye, Mira! at SFAI’s Walter and McBean Galleries

¡Oye, Mira!: Reflective Approaches in Contemporary Latin American Video Art brings together a selection of artists from Latin America who use video as a tool of reflection and contemplation, exploring relationships of identity to site, history, and memory. These artists play an important role as mediators in the geo-political landscape, seeking to place their work within the context of place/site and the intersection of high culture and daily life. In the featured works, materiality, form, and concept come together in an expression of each artist’s personal values and experience of the world. These range from place-specific issues of social justice and political oppression to the universal concerns of love and family.

Featuring works from Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, and Bolivia, all created in the last 12 years, the exhibition considers a wide range of approaches to production and display, including the use of the “loop,” narrative structures, sculptural installations/environments, and dialogues with complementary two-dimensional works. Audience participation will also be an integral part of the exhibition through an interactive video lounge and café, and live performances and dancing during the opening reception.

Since the early 1970s, the New Genres Department at the San Francisco Art Institute has been a pioneer in performance, moving image, and installation, and a breeding ground for work at the intersection of the three mediums. As one of the first graduates of the New Genre=s program and now Faculty Director of MFA programs at SFAI, curator Tony Labat, a Cuban native, has been an integral part of the development of New Genres since its inception. He continues to explore cross-disciplinary art production through teaching, curating, and his own practice.